


Going backwards in time

by Asphodel_Sky



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I really don't know what else to put here, Light Angst, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 10:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20655722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asphodel_Sky/pseuds/Asphodel_Sky
Summary: Dante has been four different people since he was eight years old.





	Going backwards in time

Dante is pretty sure he's suffocating. 

The ashes find its way into his nose despite his best efforts in covering it, and if not the ashes, the thick smoke gets into his lungs through the blockage. He wants to get out of the closet — Dante hates sitting there, curled in fear of those monsters that are burning down his home and that did something bad to mother, but he can't make himself move. Mother said he has to stay there, so he stays there, just like she wanted. Even if it was harder and harder to breathe, he's going to stay here, until either mother comes back (he wants to pretend that she's okay, that she found Vergil and just hid in another part of the manor, but Dante is not an idiot, and definitely he's not an optimist, no matter what his older brother thought — he's a realist, thank you very much, and Dante knows his mother won't come back to him. It breaks his heart bit by a bit), or Vergil comes, if he's even alive at this point. But just in case none of them comes, he'll get out when he thinks it's safe for him to get out of the suffocating small space. 

His eyes sting because of the smoke getting into the closet. They're already pretty dry from all the tears he's shed, and that doesn't help the matters. But he also doesn't want to close them, just in case he needs to run from demons. Or if Vergil was calling Dante. He can't close his eyes, because then he'll be tempted to sleep this situation through and that can mean he won't open his eyes ever again. 

Unfortunately, his body, had different plans and Dante promptly passes out from the lack of oxygen and fear-induced exhaustion. 

When Dante wakes up, he feels cold creeping on his skin. He can't feel the fire, and there are no more demons screaming. 

Everything is quiet, as if he is in the grave. 

And in some twisted sense, he sure _ is _ in a grave. It's a grave of Eva, who has been slayed in those walls, and soon enough this place will become the grave of Dante, the son of Sparda and Eva and the younger brother of Vergil. His mother wanted him to forget about _ everything_, so Dante is going to listen to her and do just that. 

He'll forget his past, even his own name, because mother asked him to. 

Dante gets out of the closet and goes to the remains of his bedroom, takes the Rebellion and studies the sword for a while. 

He can't take her with him. She's still a little too big for him to wield her with any confidence. He's no sword master yet. Besides, he'll be a little too visible with Rebellion, and demons will probably recognise the blade and attack him, and kill him. 

He needs to hide her until he becomes stronger. Until he'll be _ worthy _ of having her as his loyal sword. For now, he needs to hide Rebellion. And probably mother's amulet too — he reads the books too, Dante just doesn't like doing it where everyone can see him, and in some of them he read how the character was robbed by the thieves on the streets. And Dante doesn't want for mother's amount or Rebellion to be stolen, so he needs to hide them both here. 

He goes to the father's study and smears a little of his blood under the desk, which opens a secret vault where father hides all his weapons. Dante found it a few years back, when he was playing here even though he was not allowed, but when was the last time he cared about boundaries issues? Nonetheless, when he found the array under father's desk, he spent some days to solve it, and seeing how easy it was to unravel the secrets of the seal, Dante couldn't help but think that father _ wanted _ one or both him and Vergil to find it and break into the vault. If, by some stroke of luck father is still alive somewhere, he's going to ask him about that. 

Dante gets inside the spacious room and leaves Rebellion and the amulet on the table. They'll be safe there — the seal reacts when it's feed with the blood of the kin of Sparda, so no one else, except maybe for Vergil, can open it. And Dante doubts his brother even knows it exists in the first place. 

He takes a pair of daggers from it and with a heavy heart he walks away from the vault and it closes itself behind him. 

Dante breaths in and out. 

This is the last day he'll be Dante. Next time he wakes up, Dante won't exist anymore. 

It's a little harder to accept it than he thought it's going to be. 

  


David is a little boy who found himself in an orphanage after two weeks of living on the streets. 

The orphanage isn't bad in itself — he's got a roof over his head, at least two warm meals a day and a warm bed, even if a little worn from years upon years of use. The caretakers are tired, but they're also nice, they let him read all he wants and even train some martial arts all he wants. He even got some clothes to wear, even if they were hand-me-down or from a second-hand store. 

The only downside were the kids that has taken to bullying him for having white hair and reading, when he clearly is 'too young to read _ that _ good', but David figures he can't have everything. At least the caretakers are attentive enough to not let them bully him _ too _ much, so it's not _ that _ bad. 

Also, he never thought of his reading as advanced. Who would have thought he'll ever be delegated as a nerd, of all things. 

He mostly reads books about hand-to-hand combat, Eastern style, that can help him defend himself. Even if his mother wanted David to forget everything about his previous life, it's not that easy — he still remembers how weak he felt, how he couldn't defend himself or mother. He doesn't want to be weak like that anymore. So David learns how to defend himself. 

Hand-to-hand combat is not easy for him, David is more used to fighting with a sword, or any sharp weapon to be honest, and not with his bare hands. His brother once even said he won't be caught dead fighting hand to hand — it was something about an honor of a warrior or other bullshit. But it's a survival round, David can't be bothered with a 'warrior's honor', if all it is going to achieve is getting him killed. And David is not fussy, if learning some martial arts will help him survive, then he doesn't give a single damn about his honor. 

He glues together some moves he saw on the pictures in the books and some he saw in TV in the movies. The boy calls this fighting style Guard — it's supposed to be his ultimate defense, so that no one could land a hit on him. David won't let himself be so helpless like on that sad day. 

He sometimes wonders if Vergil is still alive. But he instantly slaps himself in the face to not get his hopes high. His brother is probably dead anyway, it's no use to think about the dead, when the need to survive is still there. But that doesn't mean he doesn't miss his brother. He misses him so much, he would be even glad if he was next to him, reading that stupid book of poetry of his instead of playing with him. But life doesn't work this way, and it's easier to think of Vergil as a dead. It's better to think that he's all alone on this world, even if it hurts David so much. But at least he will never be disappointingly surprised if he ever learns his hope was for vain. David was still a realist after all. 

Four years after living in a relative peace, sometimes broken by demon attacks, those monsters had clued in he used to be Dante, the son of a traitor. 

To protect the orphanage and himself, David flees, without looking back. 

  


Alekziei is a smart street rat. 

He doesn't starve, because he's good at stealing food without anyone's noticing. He also doesn't frequent any of the stores or restaurants, so no one can actually link him with the stolen goods, and Alekziei chooses the shops that definitely don't have cameras in them. 

His clothes might not be of the best quality, but those that have good clothes while living on the streets are robbed quicker than they can say 'food'. It's just safer to have old, worn fabrics on your back, so that when you go to sleep in some dark alley, it won't be the last time you'll close the eyes. And Alekziei is just lucky enough to not be affected by the temperature by much — hot or cold, even if he _ feels _ it, he definitely isn't bothered by it. All the better, he supposes, it's easier to stay alive that way. 

He also abandoned his old Guard, and instead now his style is focused on speed. When you're a thief living on streets, you need to be fast and smart, if you want to eat this evening and be relatively safe at all times from other beggars and street rats. Also, he can't allow himself the luxury of being hit anymore. Alekziei needs to get out if the harm's way as fast as he can, because any damage on, him can be his last. 

Alekziei let his hair grow out too, and because he can't waste water he can use to drink, his hair are so dirty, it looks more gray than white. All for the better, it'll be harder for anyone to recognise who he was before. If that means he still can live, he won't get cleaned as often as he wishes he could. He hates it, but what can you do. 

It's easier to forgot who he used to be too. When you're essentially fighting for your survival day in and day out, it pretty much exhaust you enough and you don't have the energy for reminiscing. That he has a new style of fighting helps in it immensely. The only thing that he allowed himself to keep are the daggers he got from father's secret vault. They have saved his ass more than once.

(But even if he doesn't think of his past actively, he still dreams of it in his nightmares — he dreams of a great fire that consumes everything, he dreams of pained screams and the thick smokes and ashes that crawls deep into his lungs, suffocating him.)

Alekziei lives in an area that has a few devil hunters and exorcists, so even demon attacks aren't as often as they were when he lived as David. The only real thing he needs to be careful of are the people on the streets, not demons in his wardrobe. On the streets there are no friends, only temporary alliances. 

Still, when one of the kids tells him he caught some hunters talking about how demons are looking for 'a son of Sparda', he quickly gathers all the food he was able to steal some time ago and runs away from the small town. 

'Alekziei' died when he was fifteen years old. 

  


Tony Redgrave often uses guns for his unusual mercenary jobs. 

With how often he's fighting more than three enemies, no matter if they're simple Prides or other low level demons, guns are useful to get rid of the pests fast and easy. 

The only downside of them is they're breaking all too easily, at least when it comes to Tony. But he can't exactly help himself, in the middle of the fight he just gets so into it that he isn't careful with how much pressure he's putting on the guns with his strength. And because of that, most of his payment for jobs goes into buying new weapons. But at least he still has enough to be able to have a small apartment, even if it was in the shadiest part of the Redgrave, and he actually can afford his food and clothes. After living in poverty for three years, it's nice to have a warm bed, even if it's worn out, it's nice to have running water whenever he wants, even if it's cold. Tony actually can _ afford _ such luxuries, and he doesn't think the novelty of it ever wears off. 

Nell is always a little baffled and angry every time he breaks 'her precious babies'. But he sees how relieved she is when her guns once again were able to protect him from harm, the talking is mostly for a show to cover up how worried she is about him. Probably because she's a mother, and her daughter is not much older than Tony. She probably feels maternal over him, and the teenager can't bring himself to point it out to her. And besides, it's not like it's going to accomplish anything, really. It's also not like she's not letting him work for his upkeep, or even restricting his freedom, so Tony can work with that. 

He gets out from the shower, and he quickly dries his hair. It's not as long as it used to be, back when he was Alekziei. Now it is actually looking as if he takes care of it. Which is also really nice, to afford such a luxury many takes for granted. At some point, he himself took it as granted, but not anymore. 

Tony looks in a mirror. 

Who he actually is? Is there still 'Dante', somewhere? What about 'David'? Or 'Alekziei'? Did they disappear in sands of time and another person he became, in this case 'Tony'? Or are they still there? Was he at any point of time really them? _ Are _ they even him? He can't remember. 

'Tony' doesn't know who he is. Is he anyone? Was he anyone at some point? 'Tony' doesn't know. 'Tony' started living when he was fifteen. 'Tony' doesn't have any past to speak of. They only thing 'Tony' is sure of is that he's an orphan and his fighting style is Gunslinger. He doesn't have any family related to him by blood. The teen can't even tell if he's relieved or sad because of it, and honestly, he doesn't even care at this point. 

He's been four different people throughout his whole life. Which one of them is really 'him'? Does he even know who 'he' is? What does even mean being 'someone'? Does he even qualify as being 'someone'? 

'Tony' doesn't know if 'he' has any interest besides demon slaying. Is there anything 'he' likes, or even wants? 'Tony' knows 'he' wants to survive, but why? Why does 'he', or 'Tony' even bother to live? There's nothing for them in this world. 

He can't stand looking in the mirror anymore. 

He gets out of there, puts on some clothes, gets the blueprints and goes to .45 Works. 

Tony has had enough of breaking so many guns and then spending a small fortune to buy new ones. Time to spend a little more money to commission guns that even he won't break with his strength.

(Vergil is _alive_.) 

After Nell's death 'Tony', or rather now 'Dante', goes back to his old family home and gets his most precious treasures out from father's vault. 

Dante really missed the cold touch of Rebellion's hilt, who now sings in his hand, and the heavy feeling of his mother's amulet around the neck. 

The teen looks around the room and finds some book under one of the tables. He doesn't remember it being there, but to be fair, usually when he came here as a little boy he was more interested in playing with all those weapons and not in looking around. 

Dante takes the book and opens it at random page. 

It's not a book — it's a photo album. 

There is a massive amount of photos of Eva at the beginning of it, but with more pages passed, Eva slowly was going back into a background and more and more photos were of him and Vergil. 

Dante thinks of leaving it here and getting out of there, his mother's voice still ringing with words of a new beginning and forgetting all about the past but… he already disobeyed her wish, so he might as well take the album with him. 

He's so sick and tired of running from his past. Dante's a big boy now — he can defend himself from any demon thrown at his way. 

He looks at Rebellion once more. 

Well, it's only fair that 'Dante' gets to use her, right? After all, from all the people he was over the years, 'Dante' is the one who fights as the Sword Master. 

He still doesn’t know who he is, but maybe going back to his first name was a start of discovering it.

**Author's Note:**

> My [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AsphodelSky?s=09), where I rt stuff and sometimes scream into the void.


End file.
